Our world functions on communication, whether via email, television, social media, phone conversations, in-person meetings, etc. Thankfully, there are many effective classes and courses that can help you build strong communication skills. In order to help you find the courses that are right for your needs, we have researched hundreds of courses on the market today and made a list of the seven best ones. Here are our top picks.
The Top 7 Best Communication Courses
- Udemy – Instant Communication Skills – Best for Basics
- Coursera – English Communication Skills Certification – Best for Strengthening English Speaking and Writing Skills
- Coursera – Teamwork Skills: Communicating Effectively in Groups – Best for Teams
- LinkedIn Learning – Effective Listening – Best for Improving Listening Skills
- Coursera – Storytelling and Influencing: Communicate with Impact – Best for Storytelling
- Udemy – Public Speaking and Presentations – Best for Advancing Speaking Skills
- Coursera – Social Psychology – Best for Learning the Psychology of Communication
You can learn more about each of these courses below to decide which one is right for you.
#1 – Udemy – Instant Communication Skills – Best for Basics
- On-demand video
- Certificate of completion included
- Lifetime access at no extra cost
- Only $11.99
Looking to get some of the basics of communication under your belt? Then consider signing up for this Udemy course. Instant Communication Skills teaches all the best practices of how to be a better communicator in all situations.
The course includes 31 minutes of on-demand video that you can access anytime, anywhere. That makes the course as convenient as possible and one that you can do on your own time. Additionally, you get full lifetime access to the course, so can revisit it down the line if you feel like you need a refresher in your communication. The class covers several different topics including:
- How to become more attractive with strong communication skills
- How to build instant connections via communication
- How to use your skills to put the people around you into action
The sections of the Instant Communication Skills course are:
- Introduction
- Importance of Communication
- What to Do to Be a Better Communicator NOW?
- How to Improve Communication Skills?
- Put Everything Into Action Right Now
- Communication in Conversation for Connection
- Written Communication
- You’re NOW a Better Communicator
- Final Words
Upon completing this course you will receive a certificate and the skills to effectively communicate in personal and professional situations.
The course is priced at $11.99.
#2 – Coursera – Improve Your English Communication Skills Specialization – Best for Strengthening English Speaking and Writing Skills
- Excellent for non-native English speakers
- Covers in-person, phone, and online communication
- Includes training in professional email writing
- Free to audit through Georgia Tech
Speaking and writing English are necessary skills that native English speakers learned at a young age. However, over time, some people either lose the skills they learned when they were young, or don’t learn how to adapt them to suit their careers. Many other people didn’t grow up speaking English but want to succeed in industries and jobs where English is the primary language of communication.
Offered on Coursera via Georgia Tech, Improve Your English Skills Specialization provides you with the tools to improve your professional communication skills, with an emphasis on speaking and writing in English. If your work involves these forms of communication, this may be the right course for you.
This specialization consists of 4 separate courses that will help you get into the depths of communication. Those courses are:
- Write Professional Emails in English
- Speak English Professionally: In-Person, Online, and On the Phone
- Build Your Professional ePortfolio in English
- Take Your English Communication Skills to the Next Level
Whether you are looking to break into or grow in an English-speaking industry as a non-native speaker, or simply improve your professional communication skills in English, this specialization will give you the confidence to communicate via speaking and writing to take your career to the next level.
Auditing this specialization requires no fee.
#3 – Coursera – Teamwork Skills: Communicating Effectively in Groups – Best for Teams
- Group development from project beginning to end
- Includes conflict management training
- Explore the role of technology in group dynamics
- Available free from University of Colorado
It’s no secret that being part of a successful team means mastering communication. For any project of any magnitude to work out, team members have to work together and share information. Hence the importance of this pick on our list, the Coursera Teamwork Skills: Communicating Effectively in Groups course.
It’s inevitable that at some point on your team you will be faced with differing opinions and conflict, and managing it properly can really make or break your team. This course will help you learn how to successfully navigate conflict as well as negotiation, and much more.
Now that many jobs are primarily remote, the need to communicate effectively has gotten even more important. This course provides the information to improve your skills in virtual group communication as well.
This course is offered by the University of Colorado-Boulder and auditing is available for free.
#4 – LinkedIn Learning – Effective Listening – Best for Improving Listening Skills
- Learn to listen without distraction
- Self-assessment of listening skills
- Access on-demand from any device
- Free on LinkedIn Learning
Oftentimes when people think of communicating, they think of how effectively they can get their information out there, or get their thoughts heard. But, there is another, equally-as-important part of communicating that you must master as well, and that is listening. Listening is key to exchanging information successfully, and key to your professional and personal life.
The Effective Listening course from LinkedIn Learning will help you gain those skills to communicate well on the receiving end. This interactive course will also help you do the following:
- Learn about attentive listening
- Learn what to do when the delivery of information is distracting
- Learn about mental filters
- Learn about methods to respond with paraphrasing
- Learn about the five listening intentions
The course is broken up into the following lessons:
- Introduction
- Assessing Your Listening Skills
- Challenges to Listening
- Effective Listening Behaviors
- Conclusion
And the course ends with an exam that tests everything learned throughout the course. This class can be accessed anytime, anywhere, and from any device that works with video.
This course is free of charge.
#5 – Coursera – Storytelling and Influencing: Communicate With Impact – Best for Storytelling
- Learn audience motivation & connection
- Master creating a compelling narrative
- Easy four-week schedule
- ”Free
Storytelling has played a huge role in the history of the human race, but have you thought about the importance of storytelling in your professional life? When you share your vision of a project or the future of a company, you’ll most likely do it with storytelling. The ability to tell a story well helps you to influence people in their decision-making and become a stronger leader. This class from Coursera can help you with that.
Through video lectures, quizzes, discussion prompts, and written assessments, the class will cover the following topics:
- How to evaluate a range of theories to learn the pieces of persuasive communication
- How to apply different strategies in different contexts to build a reputation and gain acceptance
- How to develop skills that will help to motivate the audience and influence the way they think
The course is broken down into four weeks and each of the weeks discusses the following:
- The necessary art of persuasion: Understanding what matters to your audience
- Telling your story: Developing a dramatic narrative
- Connecting with people: Developing authenticity and building rapport
- Talk the talk: Creating impressions and guiding influential conversations
Storytelling and Influencing: Communicate with Impact is offered by Macquarie University via Coursera and auditing is available for free.
#6 – Udemy – Public Speaking and Presentations – Best for Mastering Speaking Skills
- Covers confidence, delivery skills, & audience management
- Over four hours of video
- 13 downloadable resources
- Only 18.99
It’s said that 77% of people are afraid of public speaking–it’s the most common answer people name when asked their biggest fear, outside of death. Yet on the other side of that fear is one of the most powerful skills in a professional communicator’s toolbox, which this class on Udemy can teach you.
Public speaking can help you impress clients, sell presentations, inspire audiences, sell books, grow your business, and more. So getting better at it will be worth facing some fear!
As mentioned in the title, this class is not for beginners. It is for those who already have some experience in public speaking, and who are looking to become masters in the area. The class consists of 14 different videos that help to teach some of the following topics:
- How to captivate an audience, immediately
- How to keep your audience engaged
- How to spend less time organizing and preparing your presentations
- How to use PowerPoint well
The four sections of the course are:
- Open Well
- Delivery Skills
- Audience Management
- BONUS: Discover the Top 10 Fears of Public Speaking
The cost of this course is $18.99 and comes with 4.5 hours of on-demand video as well as 13 downloadable resources.
#7 – Coursera – Social Psychology – Best for Learning the Psychology of Communication
- Learn social perception, persuasion, & group behavior
- Convenient four-week schedule
- Over $1,000 worth of materials
- Free through Wesleyan University
Have you ever thought about the role of social psychology in communication? Learning how to make decisions, persuade people, handle groups, attract people, and more is key to success in your professional life, and this Coursera class teaches you that.
This four-week course is broken down into the following:
- Social Perceptions and Misperceptions
- The Psychology of Self-Presentation and Persuasion
- Obedience, Conformity, and Deindividuation
- Group Behavior: The Good, Bad, and Ugly
Plan on about 38 hours of your time to complete this course, and since it is entirely online, you can learn at your own pace and on your own schedule. You can adjust the different deadlines to meet your schedule as well.
This class is offered via Wesleyan University and includes more than $1,000 worth of video and reading materials. And the best part? It is free to audit.
How to Find The Best Communication Courses For You
Above is a list of just the top communication courses. There are thousands of other courses that didn’t make the list, but that may still be worth your time. We all have different communication needs, and it is important to know how you can find the best communication courses for you.
In order to help you in that process, here are the three criteria we used to choose and rank our top communication courses. Consider these different criteria and use them to help you in your own research in finding the right class for you.
Know Your Weaknesses
It is hard to face what we aren’t good at. As humans, that doesn’t come easily. However, the only way that you can grow in any part of your life is to know your weaknesses and to work on them. That is especially true when it comes to your professional life.
So take some time to realize where you may lack strength when it comes to communication. This may require asking other people that know you well–-friends, coworkers, family. Put your ego aside and discover what you need to work on. This is the only way that you can improve your communication.
Know Your Goals
Why are you looking to improve your communication skills? Is there a job that you’re after? Did your current boss tell you that your communication needs a refresh? Before you dive into taking a class, look at why you are considering taking it, and what your goals are. What do you hope to gain from taking the class? Once you know your goals, you can better find a class that will help you reach that point.
Know Your Audience
Who do you do most of your professional communicating with? And what form of communication do you use? It is important to know your audience and the type of communication you typically have with them (email, phone, Zoom, etc.). That way, you know what you need to strengthen.
Summary
Out of thousands of courses, we narrowed it down to the top seven picks for the best communication courses.
Though these are the top, that does not mean there aren’t other very strong choices out there. This is especially true if the topics you’re interested in weren’t covered in our list of the best. Use this guide as your means of researching to find what works best for you.
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